How to track annual leave in Türkiye: from entitlement to approval

How does the annual leave process work?

The annual leave process starts when an employee completes a year of service and the entitlement arises, and it ends when the days taken are on record. In between come the balance calculation, the request, the approval, a team calendar check and the transfer to the attendance ledger. When every step has an owner, nobody has to recalculate balances.

1. Set the entitlement. For each employee, record the start date, age, whether they do underground work and any absences that count towards their service.
2. Open the balance. Enter days carried over from earlier years as an opening balance, and keep extra days granted by contract as a separate rule.
3. Take the request. The request should show the start and end dates, any travel leave asked for and the balance left once it is approved.
4. Count the days. Leave out of the count any weekly rest day, national holiday or public holiday inside the requested dates.
5. Check for clashes. Use the calendar to spot whether too many members of one team will be off at once.
6. Approve and notify. Record who decided and when, and tell the employee the outcome in writing.
7. Post it to the ledger. Approved leave days should reach the puantaj (monthly attendance ledger) at the moment of approval, not at month end.

What does Turkish labour law say about annual leave?

Labour Law No. 4857 (İş Kanunu) gives paid annual leave to employees who have worked for at least one year, including the probation period, and says this right cannot be waived. The minimum number of days depends on length of service and age; an employment contract or collective agreement can increase it.

When calculating entitlement, time spent in one or more workplaces of the same employer is added together (Art. 54). Some periods count as time worked, such as days missed through accident or illness (up to a limit), time off before and after childbirth, and weekly rest and public holidays (Art. 55). You can read the full text at Labour Law No. 4857.

The employer cannot split leave on its own; the parties can agree to split it, but one part must be at least ten days. National holidays, weekly rest days and public holidays occurring during the leave are not counted towards it. An employee who will spend the leave elsewhere receives up to four days of unpaid travel leave in total, if they ask for it and provide evidence (Art. 56).

The same article obliges the employer to hold a leave record document listing the leave taken. The Annual Paid Leave Regulation gives a template for it, asks the employee to give written notice at least one month in advance (Art. 7) and requires a leave board in workplaces with more than one hundred employees (Art. 15). The list of holidays is set out in Law No. 2429 on National Holidays and Public Holidays.

Where does tracking leave in Excel or on paper break down?

Tracking leave in Excel usually falls apart within the first few years, because each employee's entitlement date is different and the tiers change with seniority. When approvals stay in email, nobody can prove which request was confirmed. Most problems come from scattered records, not from the arithmetic.

• Entitlement is added for everyone in January instead of on each employee's work anniversary.
• The change of tier in the fifth or fifteenth year of service, or at age 50, goes unnoticed.
• Holidays and weekly rest days inside the leave period are deducted from the balance.
• Cancelled or shortened leave is not updated in the sheet, so the balance and the attendance ledger drift apart.
• Employees email HR to ask how many days they have left, and the same question returns every month.

How does leave work in Sora İK?

Sora İK calculates annual leave entitlement from the seniority start date, age and underground work details, and keeps the request, the approval and the balance in a single record. Approved leave shows up in the attendance ledger with its own day code. A summary of the product facts is on the Sora İK page.

When an employee picks dates, the screen shows which days count and which do not, the balance that would remain, and warnings such as not enough balance, a part shorter than ten days, or travel leave that is not attached to annual leave. HR can also open a request on another employee's behalf.

The law adds together service in the same employer's workplaces; Sora İK does not do this merging for you, so HR enters the combined seniority start date by hand. The weekly rest day is Sunday by default and the company can change it; official and religious holidays and the company's own closure days are skipped when days are counted.

If no approval flow is defined, the direct manager, the next-level manager or HR decides on the request. Multi-step sequences and delegation are set up with the designer covered in the HR approval workflow guide. The decision is sent to the employee by email in Turkish and English.

On the roadmap: sick leave and maternity leave types, company-specific leave types, half-day leave, making the team calendar visible to every employee, and unpaid leave and sick days counting automatically as missing days in payroll. For details: Leave Management — full feature list.

What should IT and management watch for?

A leave record carries hints about health and family circumstances as well as the balance, so permissions and audit trails matter as much as the calculation. Decide at the outset who can approve, who can change a record and what may be written in notes. In a multi-branch organisation, test these rules for every branch separately.

• Approval hierarchy: define in writing the order of branch manager, regional manager and HR, and name a deputy for days when a manager is on leave. Nobody should be able to approve their own request.
• Health information: details such as the reason for a sick note or a child's treatment are special category personal data in the sense of KVKK (Türkiye's Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698). Keep diagnoses out of request notes; Sora İK shows leave for a child's treatment only as compassionate leave in the notification email.
• Audit trail: a usage entry that comes from an approved request stays linked to it and cannot be removed by hand; opening balances and adjustments are stored with a date, a note and the name of whoever entered them.
• Account security: make two-step verification mandatory on every account with approval rights. Sora İK's security measures are summarised in the Sora İK security section.

Modules that work with leave management

Approved leave becomes a day code in the attendance ledger, affects pay in payroll, and the request itself comes in through the self-service screen. The guides below cover the other links in that chain.

• Puantaj guide: The attendance ledger, day codes and a checklist before payroll.
• Employee self-service guide: Employee and manager self-service, a rollout plan and visibility rules.
• HR approval workflow guide: Designing leave and document approval flows with steps, roles, conditions and delegation rules.
• Payroll preparation guide: The four-step payroll cycle in Türkiye, from the attendance ledger to the payslip, with a month-end checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Why does tracking annual leave in Excel cause errors?

Each employee's entitlement date depends on their start date, and the tier changes with seniority or age, which is hard to follow with formulas. Deducting holidays, handling cancelled leave and copying approvals out of email are all done by hand. A single wrong cell is carried into the balance for every year that follows.

Does unused annual leave carry over to the next year in Türkiye?

Under the law, an employee uses the leave earned for each year of service during the following year, and the right cannot be waived. Unused leave is not wiped out automatically; if the employment contract ends for any reason, pay for the unused days is calculated on the last wage (Labour Law Art. 59). Track carried-over days as a separate line in the balance.

How many steps should a leave approval process have?

In most workplaces two steps are enough: the direct manager, plus an HR check where needed. Each extra step leaves the request waiting and stops the employee from planning travel. The regulation asks employees to give written notice at least one month ahead, and in workplaces with more than one hundred employees a leave board prepares the leave schedule.

How do you track half-day leave?

Write down whether half-day leave comes out of annual leave or out of a separate company allowance; the law leaves splitting annual leave to agreement, provided one part is at least ten days. Half-day leave is not available in Sora İK today and is on the roadmap. Half-day holidays, for example the afternoon before a religious festival, are not deducted from leave.

How does leave data affect payroll?

Annual leave is paid leave, and the law requires leave pay to be paid in advance, before the leave starts (Art. 57). Unpaid leave, by contrast, usually enters payroll as missing days. That is why posting each leave type to the attendance ledger with the right code is a precondition for an accurate payroll.